Johnny Frigo

Chicago musician Johnny Frigo could easily rest on his laurels. He's played with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, appeared on "The Tonight Show" and penned songs for such singers as Billy Holiday. Instead, the 75-year-old violinist is flying back and forth between Houston, where he's recording an album with Buddy DeFranco, and Chicago, where he has a weekly Monday gig at Toulouse. "I guess what success I`ve had, and what keeps me going, is because I`ve done so many different things and those facets show in my...

Once described in a 1946 issue of Downbeat magazine — the bible of jazz aficionados — as "the freshest voice to be heard with a band," Charles Evans "Buddy" Hughes found a new voice as the demand for male vocalists began to wane. "He realized that if he wanted to stay with jazz, he needed to become more multifaceted as a performer," said his daughter Charlene Hopeman. That's when Mr. Hughes — then a promising New York jazz vocalist with legendary big bands led...

Johnny Frigo, 90, a musician whose skill, encyclopedic song recall and late career switch from bass to violin made him a legend in jazz joints from Chicago to Europe, died Wednesday, July 4, of complications related to a fall, his family said. Born on Chicago's South Side, Mr. Frigo took up the violin as a kid at the suggestion of the local junkman, whose son taught the instrument for 25 cents per lesson. It turned out to be the first step on a serpentine musical path. In a 1992 interview with the...

Johnny Frigo, 90, a musician whose skill, encyclopedic song recall and late career switch from bass to violin made him a legend in jazz joints from Chicago to Europe, died Wednesday, July 4, of complications related to a fall, his family said. Born on Chicago's South Side, Mr. Frigo took up the violin as a kid at the suggestion of the local junkman, whose son taught the instrument for 25 cents per lesson. It turned out to be the first step on a serpentine musical path. In a 1992 interview with the...

Rollcall (Herb Ellis, Justice). This music is tame but time-tested. Guitarist Herb Ellis, backed by Mel Rhyne on the organ and Jake Hanna on the drums, brings an easy swing to these performances, and Johnny Frigo on violin adds a faintly continental feeling from time to time. And Jay Thomas doubles, remarkably, on tenor sax and fluegelhorn. (Reviewed on cassette.)

Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago is now in its 40th-anniversary season, and its current engagement at the Athenaeum Theatre looks forward and back in celebration. There's a new piece--by dancer, associate director and rising choreographer Jon Lehrer--"Like One Hundred Men," that consists of only five performing to Johnny Frigo's jazz violin recordings of the 1970s. There's new and old in this work. Lehrer, who last gave the troupe a frolicsome salute to Paul Simon, updates the...

I'm writing in response to Howard Reich's remarks concerning Johnny Frigo, the recipient of two Living Art of Music Awards (Sept. 20). In all good conscience, I cannot let an unqualified and hurtful comment go unchallenged when it is so coldly hurled at a talent as grand and unique as Frigo's. Here is a dedicated man who has done so much for so long to enrich Chicago and international audiences with his diverse musical talents. He has written songs that have been recorded by innumerable jazz greats,...

When "Scary Movie" came out last summer, the film quickly gained a reputation as one of those "gross out" comedies, thanks to a lot of the sometimes sophomoric--and funny--gags. But it made tons of money ($260 million, to be exact), which is the main reason "Scary Movie 2" hits theaters on Wednesday. Funnyman Shawn Wayans, who along with brother Marlon is back for the sequel, tells Inc. he doesn't like the "gross out" tag critics have used to describe the flicks, which spoof...

It is a sound that must be heard to be believed, the beautiful music made by the Wurlitzer 285 Special. Your chance comes Wednesday at 7:45 p.m. when the Chicago Area Theatre Organ Enthusiasts will sponsor a special theater organ concert at the Chicago Theatre ($10 in advance, $12 at the door). Funds from the event-a concert by Rosemary Bailey on organ and Johnny Frigo on violin-will be used for the continuing preservation and restoration of what most regard as the finest remaining original theater...

Close your eyes and listen with your heart as Frank D'Rone swings into "Joey, Joey, Joey" from the Frank Loesser musical "The Most Happy Fella." Leave your logical mind stowed in the College of DuPage parking lot. Lock it up tight and pretend it's 1966 again. You're in the lounge at the Sands in Las Vegas knocking back vodka stingers. It's late. Sinatra's wrecking crew is planted down front, digging this throat with the absolutely impeccable phrasing, and you're feeling gone, man. You float on D'Rone's liquid...

Steve Rashid & The Woodside Avenue All-Stars Fidgety Feet (Woodside)(STAR)(STAR)(STAR) 1/2 Fidgety Feet is volume one of a planned series of recordings exploring different styles of American music-in this case, Swing. Co-producers Steve Rashid and Don Stiernberg drew from the ranks of local jazz players, such as clarinetist Ron Dewar, bassist Jim Cox, violinist Johnny Frigo and drummer Rusty Jones, and built a program of swinging classics from the worlds of...

Are you too young to have heard the Oscar Peterson Trio, with Ray Brown and Herb Ellis, at the London House in the `50s and `60s? Well, bassist Brown and guitarist Ellis are back at the Jazz Showcase this week, with a Peterson- like pianist, Monty Alexander, and they recapture that old spirit very well. This time they`ve got a Chicago friend, violinist Johnny Frigo, with them to add an element of wildness to their music. It seems like a long time since Herb Ellis was in...

I'm writing in response to Howard Reich's remarks concerning Johnny Frigo, the recipient of two Living Art of Music Awards (Sept. 20). In all good conscience, I cannot let an unqualified and hurtful comment go unchallenged when it is so coldly hurled at a talent as grand and unique as Frigo's. Here is a dedicated man who has done so much for so long to enrich Chicago and international audiences with his diverse musical talents. He has written songs that have been recorded by innumerable jazz greats,...

Steve Rashid & The Woodside Avenue All-Stars Fidgety Feet (Woodside)(STAR)(STAR)(STAR) 1/2 Fidgety Feet is volume one of a planned series of recordings exploring different styles of American music-in this case, Swing. Co-producers Steve Rashid and Don Stiernberg drew from the ranks of local jazz players, such as clarinetist Ron Dewar, bassist Jim Cox, violinist Johnny Frigo and drummer Rusty Jones, and built a program of swinging classics from the worlds of...

Chicago's jazz, blues, classical, theater, pop, country and society musicians converged Monday night on the Auditorium Theatre to honor their own. And with one comical exception, the first Living Art of Music Awards (LAMAs) honored the most worthy and distinguished artists to have lived and worked in the city. In almost every category, a grand and enduring figure of Chicago music aced the top award. Legendary swing drummer Barrett Deems was honored for heading the best big band;...

It's a cold and snowy Monday night, yet jazz violinist Johnny Frigo is playing to a full house at Toulouse, the intimate restaurant/piano bar at 49 W. Division St. (944-2606). Frigo is the dapper seventy-something gentleman who jokingly refers to himself as "an overnight success after 60 years" and has earned more press recently than he has throughout his long career. The critically acclaimed musician has been on "The Tonight Show" twice and has appeared on several records. A few...

For several months, the Chicago Federation of Musicians has been planning an event long overdue in a city as musically rich as this one. As noted in Tuesday's Tribune, the first Living Art of Music Awards, or Lamas, will be presented at 8 p.m. Sept. 19 in the Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress Pkwy. According to the federation, the Lamas are designed to "honor those individuals and organizations that have been champions of living music" (read live music). The ceremony will feature performances by...